[PFS] Warpriest Gunslinger

[Cyrad]

I'm building a gun priest of Pharasma that hunts down scourge of the undead. To implement the concept, I decided to go with 1 level in gunslinger and go warpriest (ACG playtest). Any advice? This is my current draft:

Randall, Gun Priest
NG human gunslinger 1 / warpriest X
STR 10; DEX 16(+2); CON 10; INT 10; WIS 14; CHA 14

Traits: Never Stop Shooting, Magical Knack
Blessings: Healing (can't decide between Knowledge or Death)

FEATS
L1 Rapid Reload (pistol)
B1 Point Blank Shot
B2 Weapon Focus (pistol)
L3 Precise Shot
B3 Rapid Shot
L5 Deadly Aim
B6 Clustered Shot
L7 ??
L9 ??
B9 ??

[Cyrad]

Any advice? This is my first PFS character. I have most of the hardcover books (including Ultimate Campaign), but not really any of the player companions and such. Aside from magical knack, I'm not certain about what trait to pick up.

[freduncio]

Had you considered the Repose Blessing? The minor blessing is a good "Get the hell away from me" power to a ranged character (also, hella strong, staggered with no save), and the major blessing is pretty iconic thing to yell when healing your allies while midly annoying near undeads. If you don't want it, the knowledge is ok, even if you need to go melee to use the blessings. The death one... I don't really think it fit in the concept, but that's just me. Don't know your character background/theme deeply.

[LoneKnave]

Considering you get increasing damage die, I'd go with some double weapon gun for my weapon focus. The pistol dagger gives you both a ranged and a melee option, for example.

[XMorsX]

For one lvl dip, consider the Mysterious Stranger archetype for the deed that lets you add charisma to damage. If you miss quick clear, you can get it back with a two lvl dip in Trophy Hunter Ranger.

Otherwise, if you astart with 5 lvls of Pistolero you can have both Dex-to-damage and access to the deed Up Close and Deadly.

Finally, if trench fighter is allowed, consider going Mysterious Stranger 1 / Trench Fighter 3 for both Dex to damage and a deed for adding Cha to dmg. Again, you can also dip two lvls into trophy hunter ranger for taking back Quick clear.

EDIT: Just saw PFS. Then your options are certainly more limited. Consider going Mysterious Stranger 1 / Warpriest 11 or Pistolero 5 / Warpriest 7.

Con 10 is a death sentence. Consider these stats:

STR 12 (solves encuberance issues)
DEX 16+2
CON 14
INT 7
WIS 14
CHA 12

Your traits are fine.

No need to take precise shot early, you can afford to w8 to take it. After Rapid Reload, take Rapid Shot and Deadly Aim asap, then work towards the Deft Shootist Deed. Improved Critical + Critical Focus should be taken at first chance, since you regain crit by criting and you cannot make your firearm keen. The snap shot / combat reflexes / improved snapshot is also a great addition to your arsenal. After these, precise shot is a good choice, although I prefer the Ricochet Shot Deed (remember that you can take Blind-Fight with an Ioun stone in a wayfinder) for ignoring both melee and cover penalties. Clustered Shots of course is a good choice (although not as essential for a warpriest since he can enchant his weapon more easily than than the mundane classes). Hammer the Gap is another excellent way to add damage.

[Cyrad]

I never considered using Repose's power defensively. That's a cool image to imagine. I'll go with that for my second Blessing.

Having a pistol dagger sounds pretty awesome (gunblade-wielding priest). It's also thematic and works well because both the dagger and the pistol would be sacred weapons since daggers are Pharasma's weapon. However, pistol daggers have really awful ranged increments. I'm also not sure if I can manage a ranged/melee build as I'm fairly MAD as is.

Losing quick clear is too devastating for Mysterious Stranger. It's not really worth it when my Charisma would only be +1 or +2. I don't really want to take 5 levels of gunslinger because that means I have to wait 6 levels before I can play my character concept. It does sound like a good idea to take deadly aim at level 1 or level 3 instead of precise shot.

[XMorsX]

Cyrad wrote:

Losing quick clear is too devastating for Mysterious Stranger. It's not really worth it when my Charisma would only be +1 or +2. I don't really want to take 5 levels of gunslinger because that means I have to wait 6 levels before I can play my character concept. It does sound like a good idea to take deadly aim at level 1 or level 3 instead of precise shot.

Fair enough, without a way to get quick clear back MS is indeed quite a gamble. Given your desire to enter Warpriest early, consider 1lvl dip in the musket master archetype, you get rapid reload with muskets for free and you have a much larger range increment for hitting touch AC.

Alternatively, you may be interested in this build progression: Pistolero 1 / Warpriest 4 / Pistolero 5 / Warpriest 7. This way you can still be a warpriest early into the game, and the 4th lvl is a pretty good lvl to dip out of warpriest, given that it is the lvl when you aquire 2nd lvl spells and sacred weapon +1.

[LoneKnave]

Cyrad wrote:

Having a pistol dagger sounds pretty awesome (gunblade-wielding priest). It's also thematic and works well because both the dagger and the pistol would be sacred weapons since daggers are Pharasma's weapon. However, pistol daggers have really awful ranged increments. I'm also not sure if I can manage a ranged/melee build as I'm fairly MAD as is.

Well, here's hoping that the ACG comes with an easy method of getting DEX to damage. For a light piercing/slashing weapon, that should be easy enough. A bit feat heavy, but you'd be a pretty nice switch-hitter.

[Cyrad]

Going back into gunslinger later for gun training sounds like a good idea. I'll consider that.